Medical Studies

There are numerous medical studies showing the correlation between body temperature and sleep cycle regulation. To get good sleep, we need to lose 1°C of core temperature. The most restorative sleep happens when body temperature reaches its minimum temperature.

We developed Moona to improve your sleep naturally based on those findings.

We also have an on-going partnership with the University Hospital of Nantes, France. After a promising first clinical trial on healthy subjects, we are currently launching a second, more advanced one

Papers

The regulation of sleep and wakefulness is well modeled with two underlying processes: a circadian and a homeostatic one. [...] Skin temperature is quite well suited to provide the brain with information on sleep-permissive and wake-promoting conditions because it changes with most if not all of them. [...] Its effect on the brain may thus moderate the efficacy by which the clock and homeostat manage to initiate or maintain sleep or wakefulness. The review provides a brief overview of the neuroanatomical pathways and physiological mechanisms by which skin temperature can affect the regulation of sleep and vigilance.

Throughout the 24-hour day, the occurrence of sleep and wakefulness is closely related to changes in body temperatures. Changes in skin temperature may causally affect the ability to initiate and maintain sleep. Changes in skin temperature may causally affect the ability to initiate and maintain sleep. First, we briefly summarize a previously proposed neurobiological mechanism that couples skin temperature to sleep propensity [...]

Sleepiness and sleep propensity are strongly influenced by our circadian clock as indicated by many circadian rhythms, most commonly by that of core body temperature. Sleep is most conducive in the temperature minimum phase, but is inhibited in a "wake maintenance zone" before the minimum phase, and is disrupted in a zone following that phase. Different types of insomnia symptoms have been associated with abnormalities of the body temperature rhythm. Sleep onset insomnia is associated with a delayed temperature rhythm presumably, at least partly, because sleep is attempted during a delayed evening wake maintenance zone. [...]

Temperature and sleep are interrelated processes. Under normal environmental conditions, the rhythms of core body temperature Tc and sleep propensity vary inversely across the day and night in healthy young adults. [...] As somnogenic brain areas contain thermosensitive cells, it is possible that the sleep/wake cycle may be directly affected by thermoregulatory changes themselves. That is, that changes in temperature may trigger, either directly or indirectly, somnogenic brain areas to initiate sleep.

Energy metabolism is strongly linked to the circadian rhythms in sleep and body temperature. Both heat production and heat loss show a circadian modulation. Sleep preferably occurs during the circadian phase of decreased heat production and increased heat loss, the latter due to a profound increase in skin blood flow and, consequently, skin warming. [...] Possible mechanisms linking the rhythms in sleep and core body and skin temperature are discussed, with a focus on causal effects of changes in core and skin temperature on sleep regulation. It is shown that changes in skin temperature rather than in core temperature causally affect sleep propensity

The purpose of this study was to confirm the effect of head cooling on human sleep stages and body temperature. [...] Wakefulness significantly increased at 32/80 than at 26/50; however, no significant difference was observed between 32/80 HC and 26/50. Tre and mean Tsk were higher both at 32/80 and 32/80 HC than at 26/50. The whole-body sweat loss was significantly greater and Tty in the morning was higher at 32/80 than 32/80 HC and 26/50. These results suggest that head cooling during sleep may help to decrease the whole-body sweat rate during sleep under humid heat conditions.

Relationships between changes in the slope of the body temperature (BT) and the initiation of sleep were examined in 44 subjects ranging from 19 to 82 years of age. [...] It is suggested that a rapid decline in core body temperature increases the likelihood of sleep initiation and may facilitate an entry into the deeper stages of sleep.